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Rank
Rank has rarely been a significant issue in official Joe fiction, with experience seeming to count more rather than actual rank. The cartoon seemed to ignore it altogether, except in the movie, when Lt. Falcon tried to pull rank on Duke and failed. Nevertheless, the filecards take care to report the rank of all but two or three Joes, and even early Cobras had equivalents ranging from E-4 to O-5. U. S. Military Pay Grades Non-Army Joes The vast majority of Joes are in the U.S. Army. But the following represent foreign armed forces or other branches of the U.S. military: Air Force :Ace :Bombstrike :Countdown :Ghostrider :Maverick :Payload :Skystriker :Slip-Stream :Space Shot Coast Guard :Cutter Marines :Gung-Ho :Hollow Point :Leatherneck :Mainframe :Sgt. Slaughter *Blast-Off *Clutch *Mirage Assumes the "Mega Marines" of 1993 were all Marines. If not, then Blast-Off, Clutch, and Mirage are probably Army, and the Marines are probably angry about lending their name to three Army guys. Navy :Deep Six :Depth Charge :Dr. Link Talbot :Keel-Haul :Mariner :Rampart :Shipwreck :Topside :Torpedo :Tracker :Wet-Suit :Wet Down Law Enforcement (currently or formerly) F.B.I. :Bullhorn :Mace S.W.A.T. :Shockwave :Wide Scope U.S. Marshals :Bullet-Proof Oktober Guard (Soviet Union) :Big Bear :Col. Brekhov :Volga/Daina :Dragonsky :Lt. Gorky :Horrorshow :Red Star :Shrage :Stormavik :Sgt. Misha Zubenkov :Wong S.A.S. :Big Ben (British SAS) :Skymate (Australian SAS) No Rank Given :Back-Stop :Chameleon :Mercer (listed as E-5 Equivalent) :Red Dog (listed as E-5 Equivalent) :Specialist Trakker :Storm Shadow (as G.I. Joe member) :Taurus (listed as E-5 Equivalent) Rank on the Cartoon As mentioned above, the Sunbow cartoon generally disregarded Joe rank. Otherwise, the first-season Joe team would have been led by Ace and Doc, with the next-ranking officers being Cutter and Steeler. Shipwreck would have outranked Beach Head, and Bazooka would have been giving orders to Alpine. The various team members usually treated one another as equals, and leadership on a mission was more a matter of functionality and experience than official rank. The only Joes addressed by rank on the series were First Sergeant Hauser, Sergeant Slaughter, Lieutenant Falcon, and General Hawk, plus "colonels" Dial-Tone, Lifeline, and Shipwreck. (In their episode, Beachhead expressed surprise that the promotions had not gone to him, Roadblock, or Slip-Stream.) G.I. Joe's leadership, as reported in "Arise, Serpentor, Arise" and "The Most Dangerous Thing in the World," had Hawk at the head of the team, followed by Duke, then Flint, and finally Beachhead and Sgt. Slaughter. In the absence of these, Scarlett, Ace, and Lady Jaye usually took the lead on their missions, and Stalker, Gung-Ho, Cover Girl, Cutter, Roadblock, Dusty, and Tollbooth also took on leadership roles at times. Shipwreck was not averse to shouting orders to his teammates, but he apparently never carried legitimate authority over anyone. In addition, Cutter sat next to Flint at Dusty's court-martial, and Slip-Stream, Wild Bill, and Admiral Ledger were alongside Hawk at Falcon's hearing. Admiral Ledger was in charge of the USS Flagg but seemed to be outside the Joe team itself, on par with Colonel Sharp. References Category:Characters By Rank Category:Characters By Military Branch